Research on health involves evaluating the disparities that are systematically associated with the experience of risk, including genetic and physiological variation, environmental exposure to poor nutrition and disease, and social marginalization. This volume provides a unique perspective – a comparative approach to the analysis of health disparities and human adaptability – and specifically focuses on the pathways that lead to unequal health outcomes. From an explicitly anthropological perspective situated in the practice and theory of biosocial studies, this book combines theoretical rigor with more applied and practice-oriented approaches and critically examines infectious and chronic diseases, reproduction, and nutrition.
Table of Content
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Foreword: Framing Risk, Adversity and Health
Alan Goodman
Introduction: Health, Risk, Adversity: A Contextual View from Anthropology
Catherine Panter-Brick and Agustín Fuentes
PART I: HEALTH RISKS AND DISEASES IN TRANSITION
Commentary I: Understanding Health Past and Present
Charlotte Roberts
Chapter 1. Health Consequences of Social and Ecological Adversity Among Indigenous Siberian Populations: Biocultural and Evolutionary Implications
William R Leonard, J Josh Snodgrass and Mark V Sorenson
Chapter 2. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Risk and Context of Emerging Primate-borne Zoonoses
Lisa Jones-Engel and Gregory Engel
Chapter 3. Viral Panic, Vulnerability and the Next Pandemic
Ann Herring
Appendix I: Was the 1918 Pandemic Caused by a Bird Flu Virus?
Appendix II: Applying the Syndemic Approach: Whooping Cough at York
PART II: GENERATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE
Commentary II: Thinking About Health Through Time and Across Generations
Darna Dufour
Chapter 4. Adaptation, Health and the Temporal Domain of Human Reproductive Physiology
Peter Ellison and Grazyna Jasienska
Chapter 5. Changes in Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Migrant Women: An inter-generation comparison among Bangladeshis in the UK
Alejandra Núñez-de-la-Mora and Gillian R. Bentley
Chapter 6. Family Structure and Child Growth in sub-Saharan Africa: Assessing “hidden risk”
Daniel W. Sellen
Appendix: Poor Growth and Risk of Death
PART III: GENE EVOLUTION, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
Commentary III: Explaining Health Inequalities
Bill Dressler
Chapter 7. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Keith Godfrey and Mark Hanson
Chapter 8. Beyond the Gradient: An Integrative Anthropological Perspective on Social Stratification, Stress, and Health
Thomas Mc Dade
Chapter 9. The Slavery Hypothesis: An Evaluation of a Genetic-Deterministic Explanation for Hypertension Prevalence Rate Inequalities
Lorena Madrigal, Mwenza Blell, Ernesto Ruiz and Flory Otarola
Conclusion: Adversity, Risk and Health: A View from Public Health
Martin White
Contributors
Glossary
Index
About the author
Agustín Fuentes is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, US. His research interests focus on primate and human behavior, pathogen transmission, and patterns in human and primate evolution. He has co-edited three books, The Non-Human Primates (1999), Primates Face to Face (2002), Primates in Perspective (2006) and recently completed a textbook in biological anthropology, Core Concepts in Biological Anthropology (2006). His most recent book is Evolution of Human Behavior (2008).
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